


I'll give you shelter from the storm

by born_to_read



Series: My Engineer Oneshots [1]
Category: My Engineer (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24980458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/born_to_read/pseuds/born_to_read
Summary: The sky was now even darker than it had been mere seconds ago, and a clap of thunder rang through, causing King to jump slightly. Ram halted at the motion, placing a reassuring hand on King’s shoulder.Or, King and Ram go on a nice walk when they suddenly find themselves in the middle of a downpour.
Relationships: King/Ram (My Engineer)
Series: My Engineer Oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811221
Comments: 5
Kudos: 122
Collections: My Engineer Prompts





	I'll give you shelter from the storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Madhumita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madhumita/gifts).



> Title from the Bob Dylan song "Shelter from the Storm"

It started out as it always did: a sunny Tuesday afternoon, King finding Ram in the library and offering to help him with a test and Ram neither accepting nor refusing the offer, which naturally meant that he would welcome any help King could offer. 

They had been studying for the better part of four hours before King rose from the table and stretched his limbs. “Hey, that’s enough for the day, don’t you think?” he asked Ram, who in return did not even look up from the sum he was working on, scrunching up his eyebrows and chewing on his pen before he scribbled something on the paper. King sighed, unwillingly endeared by the action, and tapped on Ram’s head softly with his own pen. Ram sat up with a a start and turned to King with an annoyed expression. 

“As I was saying, we should be going home now” King told him. “It’s getting late” he added, even though it was only six in the evening. Ram closed him books, but looked thoughtful and slightly hesitant, which King interpreted as him not wanting to leave just yet. So, he tacked on, “Want to eat something before we leave?”

Ram nodded after a moment, placing his books into his bag delicately and standing up beside King. He gestured in the direction of the restaurant they usually ate at when they stayed back studying past school hours. King smiled at the familiar action and joined Ram as he walked towards the restaurant. 

“So, did you get your cycle fixed after it blew a flat yesterday?” King asked Ram conversationally. Ram shook his head as they found a table at the restaurant and settled in. The server arrived at their table in seconds, greeting them with familiarity and calling them her ‘two favourite boys’, as she had started doing since the previous week; before that, it had been her ‘favourite couple’, and it had taken several weeks of them (King) insisting that they were _not_ a couple before she had relented and addressed them differently. Ram had been of no help, smirking at King’s agitated expression every time he tried to explain to the woman that they weren’t together and sometimes blushing in embarrassment but still not contributing to the conversation. 

King placed orders for both of them, briefly checking with Ram regarding whether he had ordered right for him and receiving a thumbs-up from the other boy in lieu of a reply. “So, you’ll be walking home, then?” King continued where he had left off after the server left to the kitchen. Ram nodded, and then looked at King expectantly. “We can walk together. Yours is on the way to mine, anyway” he said, not adding that it was only _on the way_ if King took the long route to his house. From Ram’s quiet smile, he was fairly certain that he knew anyway. 

The food arrived presently and both of them cleaned their plates within a few minutes, with King pausing to make a passing comment every now and then, and Ram reacting appropriately to each one either by nodding, smiling, or raising one or both of his eyebrows. King had decided a while ago that he enjoyed these silent meals with Ram, different as they were from the noise-filled lunch breaks with his own group of friends. There was something calming about Ram’s presence, though King was aware that his heart was very much _not_ calm whenever Ram leaned too close to him-as he was beginning to do more and more often the more comfortable he got in King’s presence-or smiled too brightly. 

King attempted to pay for the bill, but Ram stopped him and shook his head, pulling a wad of cash out of his own wallet and laying it on the table. This was customary with them, since Ram thought of the meals as a payment to King for teaching him earlier. King didn’t want to tell Ram that the teaching was for King himself as much as it was for Ram; he enjoyed getting a free meal once every week, after all, and, if he got to spend most of the day with Ram as well, then that was just an added benefit. 

They began the walk back home in companionable silence, with King glancing at Ram every few seconds, enjoying the way the breeze ruffled his hair and caused it to fall over his forehead, prompting him to brush it out of his face with a slight frown. King ranted about how Kumfah expected him to aid her on a shopping trip the following weekend, and then switched to the topic of a class test he hadn’t done very well in, before elaborating on his last phone call with his mother all in the span of fifteen minutes. Ram looked amused by his ability to keep talking-which made sense, because King was just as amused by Ram’s ability to _not_ talk for such a long period of time-but not bored. At least, King didn’t think he looked bored. And he liked to think that he was now an expert in reading Ram’s expressions. 

Halfway to Ram’s house, King opened his mouth to begin a one-sided conversation regarding Bohn and Duen’s relationship-which he just _knew_ Ram found as nauseating as he did (in a why-is-my-best-friend-so-sappy kind of way) when he felt a drop of water hit his forehead. Frowning, he looked up, only to be met with several more drops falling into his eyes in quick succession. He heard Ram release a breathy sigh from beside him, and mutter, “It’s raining.”

King didn’t have the time to marvel at the sudden sound of Ram’s voice before the boy clasped his hand and dragged him to the side of the street to find some form of shelter. “There’s nowhere we can go” King chimed unhelpfully, for the path they were in was clean and devoid of even trees. Ram looked around searchingly before shaking his head and continuing to pull King towards wherever he was taking the two of them, assuming that he even had a place in mind. 

“Where are we going?” he asked, seeing as it had begun raining in earnest. King had spent a while getting his hair to look good in the morning-definitely _not_ because he knew that Ram and him had no classes after lunch on Tuesdays and so would probably end up studying together-and he didn’t like the idea of having it soaked by the downpour. Ram turned to him briefly with an almost challenging expression, and then pointed somewhere on the other side of the street. 

“How helpful” King said under his breath as they headed over. Upon going closer, King realized that it was a shed the other boy had been leading them towards, and he sighed with relief. The sky was now even darker than it had been mere seconds ago, and a clap of thunder rang through, causing King to jump slightly. Ram halted at the motion, placing a reassuring hand on King’s shoulder. King was slightly embarrassed at being frightened by something as stupid as thunder. Still, he didn’t shake Ram’s hand away until Ram, seemingly coming to the conclusion that King wasn’t _truly_ scared, took his hand once more and walked the final few paces to the shed quickly. 

Together, they pushed back the small wooden door, which fell back easily, already falling apart at the hinges. “What is this place?” King wondered aloud, as Ram flicked on a tiny switch which was located in the corner of the doorway, causing the one solitary bulb in the shed to flicker feebly, emitting just enough light for King to see that there was nothing inside save a few rusted tools in the corner and barely enough room for the two of them to sit comfortably.

“The gardener in this locality stores his things in here” Ram replied. 

“How do you even know that?” 

“He’s friends with my mother” Ram said quietly.

“Ah. Well, good thing your mother is friends with him, then. Otherwise we would be stuck out there in the middle of a thunderstorm” King said with a shudder as he bent down and patted the ground lightly. This caused a cloud of dust to rise from the floor, and King coughed slightly before settling down, cross-legged, with his back leaning against one wall of the tiny shed. A moment later, Ram sat down opposite him, stretching his feet out so that they brushed against King’s leg. King shifted his own position slightly to lean into the touch. He thought he saw Ram smile in the dim lighting of the shed. 

“Are your afraid of thunder?” Ram asked after a pause. 

King’s first reaction was to get defensive and tell Ram that his question was stupid, but then he realized that his question was more curious than mocking, as was always the case with anything Ram asked him, really. The boy was usually direct with his queries, asking to know more than anything else. So, King shrugged. “I used to be, as a child. I would sometimes run to Kumfah’s room and poke her until she either woke up or moved so that I could sleep in her bed with her, after which I would beg her to cuddle me. It used to annoy her so much, but she now swears that she misses those days”

The corner’s of Ram’s lips tugged upward in a smile, so King went on, “Ma says its because I was born during a thunder storm, though I don’t know if the idea that I found being born into this world so traumatizing that it left a permanent scar on me is a very reassuring one” he joked. 

Ram laughed, before clearing his throat and saying, “My brother, Dylan, used to be scared of the dark. He wouldn’t sleep without all the lights in his room turned on until he was nine, when my father told him that he was too old for that nonsense”

“I wish someone in my family had done that to me. I continued to creep into Kumfah’s room until she got married and moved out.” King said, “The first thunderstorm after she left, I had to layer three blankets on top of me so I wouldn’t have to listen to the loud sounds from outside”

As if on cue, there was a shrill crackle of thunder, and King did his best not to jump up again, though he mostly failed, for he felt his shoulders go up slightly for a second. Ram must have noticed too, for he extended his leg further and nudged King’s thigh. Suddenly, King didn’t mind getting frightened by thunder all that much.

“So, we’re just going to have to stay here until the storm subsides, huh?” King said, checking his watch to find that it was well past eight. He looked up to find that Ram had his phone out and was typing away furiously. 

At King’s questioning gaze, he said shortly, “My brother” which meant that he was telling his brother that he probably wouldn’t make it home any time soon. King nodded and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. He was startled awake a minute later by another clap of thunder, this time far louder than the last. He saw Ram eyeing him warily from where he was seated across him. 

“I’m okay” King said feebly. 

Without a word, Ram stood up and nudged King until he moved so that Ram could sit beside him. It was a tight fit, with King’s left leg squished against an old gardening shovel or some other tool, and Ram turned sideways so as to accommodate his entire body. Ram looked at King expectantly, as though asking permission, and it took King a moment to realize what he was asking. He nodded, and Ram lifted his arm to place it around King. Feeling a blush rise up his cheeks, King cuddled close to the other boy, who sighed softly from above him, causing the hair on King’s head to flutter from the breath. 

They stayed that way for a few minutes, King sinking further against Ram as they shuffled to make themselves more comfortable. He felt his eyes fluttering shut, and managed to say, “This is much better than Kumfah” He heard Ram chuckle, and smiled to himself as he closed his eyes and let sleep take over him.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comment if you liked it!


End file.
